2025 has turned out to be a historic 12 months for NYJO; as well as making a big impact with our Learning programme, the year has provided our Emerging Professionals with a host of performance and development opportunities. The total number of individual paid performance opportunities provided to our Emerging Professional musicians was 388. We took the time to look back on some of our favourite moments from this year’…
The winter months of January to March were marked by holistic musicianship coaching for our young performers aged 18-25. Resident MD Olivia Murphy kicked off the year with a mentoring workshop for four of our talented Emerging Professionals in January. The group focussed on arranging repertoire from the renowned Blue Note label. Additional Blue Note gigs came to feature as part of NYJO’s artistic offering throughout the year with more recent highlights from November 2025’s gig in Symphony Hall Birmingham. Moreover, we are excited to announce that tickets for Blue Note Reimagined at Warwick Art Centre in March 2026 are now live to be purchased here!
February saw our triumphant sell-out show at the Southbank Centre with NYJOs musical tribute to James Baldwin. Our programme The Fire Next Time was led by the visionary bandleader Peter Edwards, curator Lucy-Anne Daniels, singer-songwriter Akin Soul as well as gospel singers who came together with our incredible NYJO young musicians. In fact, throughout the entirety of 2025, NYJO EPs collaborated with various inspiring individuals, totalling at 5 different musical directors and 12 different guest artists, that is one for each month of the year! The Winter of professional development was rounded up in March with an industry session with Fred Bolza from New Soil. These sessions were set up to provide first-hand insight and considered practical guidance for newcomers looking to make their mark on the contemporary music scene.
By the end of 2025, NYJO had stacked up a total of 4886 audience members reached. The commencement of an exciting new residency at Levels in South London and the beginning of Jazz festival season in Spring certainly had a large part to play in this…
The month of April featured our first ever Levels takeover where NYJO appeared alongside the beloved Levitation Orchestra as well as a masterclass with the Mingus Big Band with Boris Koslov and Conrad Herwig.
May required lots of travelling round the country with three different festivals on our agenda: Cross The Tracks, Cheltenham Jazz Festival and Norwich Jazz Festival. In fact, for the year in total, NYJO musicians travelled to nine different cities across England to perform, highlighting the demand and opportunity for excellent live music outside of the capital. The number of times the NYJO travel bursary was used was 147 : enabling financial support for musicians traveling to rehearsals and performances from outside of London.
In June, the fabulous Jazz tuba player and composer Theon Cross headlined NYJOs Peckham Levels residency. In the same month, an ensemble of Emerging Professionals began rehearsals for our Township Jazz project. The latter is an ongoing musical programme showcasing the contributions of South African musicians, specifically the pianist Abdullah Ibrahim. As we know, rehearsals are a big component of life at NYJO and to that of any instrumentalist: this year we tallied a total of 54 rehearsals altogether, that is over 200+ hours!
Jasmine Myra, saxophonist and emerging star of British Jazz headlined our July Levels show. It certainly got summer season started on the right track; inspiring our EPs ahead of their appearance at We Out Here festival in Dorset this August. Including these music festivals, our NYJO EPs played a total of 35 public performances throughout the year.
As Autumn commenced, music from the James Baldwin Tribute Recording at World Heart Beat was the soundtrack for September, soon followed by the NYJO Big Band’s showcase at Chelsea Arts Festival.
In October, rehearsals for Sam Eastmond’s presentation of John Zorn’s Masada started! This was soon to be premiered, along with some never-before-heard tracks of Zorn’s arrangements, at the EFG London Jazz Festival the following month.
It was fortuitous for both our EPs and their supporters, that EFG London Jazz Festival coincided with the 60th anniversary of NYJO. In the evening, one such NYJO large ensemble took the stage to perform a special programme, conceived and musically directed by NYJO EP, Trumpeter and composer Olivia Cuttill. Together they performed a stunning tribute to Nina Simone’s 1982 album Fodder on My Wings.
The festivities of December have been very heart-warming indeed. Not only has it been a time for our EPs to look ahead for all our performance projects for 2026, but it has also been a chance to give back to our musical community and provide mentorship for those getting started. This month, some of our EPs addressed school aged students at Creative Careers Panel Talks in SE London, highlighting the possibilities around development and leadership skills in music education. Other EPs led the Woolwich Works Community Choir carol concert. Choir members were invited to perform their repertoire of Christmas classics at the Houses of Parliament!
All in all, it has been a varied and historic year. 2025 has been filled with lots of ‘firsts’ and here’s to many more in 2026! ; Thank you to all of our Emerging Professionals, supporters and the NYJO community for their contribution to making this year both musical and memorable.